Middle School at Hammurabi Valley International School
Our International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme is founded on a student-centered approach to teaching and learning. It provides a rigorous bilingual curriculum that blends the best practices of the U.S. educational system with the high standards of the national curriculum from Turkey.
Curriculum Overview
The International Baccalaureate provides the framework for the Middle Years and Diploma Programme and is the underpinning of the scope and sequences of every course that is offered at Hammurabi International Schools. Courses are divided into two to three units within a semester, allowing students to explore a topic in depth. The statement of inquiry provides general guidance for students and teachers but allows them to adapt the learning experience to match the interest of the students.
Students function as artists, learners, and critics of the arts. They understand the arts in the context of cultural history.
The Design curriculum aims to empower students to become creative thinkers and innovative problem solvers. Students learn key concepts of computer science and apply strong computational thinking skills to expand their understanding of mathematics and physics through experimentation and application. Students also develop an understanding of the role of computing in the world around them. Using the design cycle, students learn to design, plan, create, and evaluate products or solutions which can be a model, prototype, product, or system that students have generated independently. In that context, students also learn essential 21st century skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and communication. The Design class is a setting that encourages healthy risk taking and promotes the idea that learning comes sometimes from mistakes rather than successes.
Students become historians in their own right as they collect, describe, and analyze various sources to interpret information, drawing a complete picture of a historical period or topic.
Hammurabi Middle School encourages active, critical thinking in the learning process. When students develop a critical point of view, they are able to analyze the challenges human societies face now and in the future. Combined with the acquisition of knowledge and skills that make historical issues relevant to them, students are able to see how cultural differences affect history and one’s interactions with others, and how to both balance and challenge these differences.
The goal of the upper school language acquisition program is to provide an intensive language learning environment that gives our students the ability to become proficient more quickly than they would in a traditional middle school language learning program. Additionally. The upper school language acquisition program enriches students with a different educational experience and opens them to a new and wider perspective of the world.
Language and literature provides the framework that supports the construction of conceptual understanding. The study of literature and writing is through connections made between reading and writing. Students expand their critical and analytical thinking skills, and develop their creative expression. They learn to be both creative and structured in their thoughts and their work.
Language and literature provides the framework that supports the construction of conceptual understanding. The study of literature and writing is through connections made between reading and writing. Students expand their critical and analytical thinking skills, and develop their creative expression. They learn to be both creative and structured in their thoughts and their work.
The Mathematics curriculum encompasses four conceptual categories: numbers, algebra, geometry/trigonometry, and statistics/probability. Students learn how to represent information, explore and model situations, and find solutions to familiar and unfamiliar problems. Students develop a solid understanding of mathematical concepts and relationships allowing them to apply techniques and strategies to develop precise procedures to solve various types of problems. Students learn to manipulate mathematical language fluently to conduct logical argumentations and rigorous proofs.
Science offers exciting opportunities for investigating issues through research, for learning problem solving and logical thinking, and for analyzing information. Students acquire a firm understanding of science as a process. They develop disciplined methods of testing hypotheses, recording observations, and drawing conclusions. Students understand the connections between biology, chemistry, and physics, because these three subjects are taught simultaneously.
Physical and Health Education aims to build upon and develop students’ knowledge and self-confidence in sports, games, movement, and health-related activities, while emphasizing and encouraging communication, teamwork, and leadership skills.
Middle school teachers engage their students in interdisciplinary units during which they make connections between concepts and skills from more than one disipline in order to develop new understanding of the relationship between ideas across disciplines. The end goal is to explain a phenomenon, to solve a problem, or to create a product, in ways that would have been unlikely through a single discipline.
ach year, Middle School students have the opportunity to participate in Local exchange and travel. These unique experiences are thoughtfully aligned with their curriculum and help to solidify their language skills as well as expand their cultural understanding. Destinations in recent years included Turkey.
Our inquiry-based program is taught through concepts and is grounded in contexts. It challenges our students to think in depth, to formulate questions, to research answers, and to communicate them clearly and effectively in both languages. In the process, they work collaboratively, and connect ideas across disciplines.
